After Listening to K-pop, People Buy Ramen... 20% of K-Food Export Growth Attributed to Hallyu Effect

KCTI Develops Hallyu Index Based on Administrative Data
30.79% of Growth in Inbound Tourists Attributed to Hallyu
Agricultural Products Exports Up 20.77%, Cosmetics Up 7.19%

An analysis has found that Hallyu, including K-pop and dramas, has had a significant impact on the export of K-food and K-beauty products, as well as the increase in inbound tourists to Korea.

The "BTS Comeback" concert held in Gwanghwamun on March 21. Photo by Yonhap News

The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute announced on May 20 the results of a study that analyzed the impact of Hallyu on related industry exports using actual transaction data. The institute developed a Hallyu index based on the export value of video and music content to estimate Hallyu's influence on the increase in related consumer goods exports and inbound tourists over the past 15 years.

The analysis showed that 13.14% of the increase in related consumer goods exports can be attributed to the influence of Hallyu. By category, 20.77% of the growth in agricultural and food exports, 16.21% in seafood exports, and 7.19% in cosmetics exports were explained by Hallyu. In terms of inbound tourist growth, 30.79% could be attributed to the Hallyu effect.

By region, the impact of Hallyu on related industry exports was particularly pronounced in North America and Asia. In contrast, the effect was relatively smaller in Europe and other regions. The institute found that countries with a larger Hallyu consumer base also structurally had more exports of Korean goods.

Contribution rate of Hallyu to export growth in key related industries. Source: Korea Culture and Tourism Institute

The study also confirmed that the effect of Hallyu is not a short-term phenomenon. Lag distribution analysis revealed that the impact of Hallyu accumulates over time as it follows the process of 'awareness → consideration → purchase → repeat purchase.' This means that the consumption of content goes beyond mere interest and leads to actual product purchases and tourism demand.

Yongkwan Lee, head of the Hallyu Economy Research Center at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, stated, "This research is meaningful in that it developed a Hallyu index based on administrative data, overcoming the limitations of previous trend analyses that relied on surveys or search volumes."

Hwang Kyoik, president of the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, said, "The Hallyu effect appears with an average lag of about one year and lasts for more than two years, so Hallyu policies should be planned and evaluated from the perspective of their mid- to long-term cumulative effects." He added, "There is a need to organically link content dissemination policies with export policies for related industries such as food and beauty."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.